Poll: Majority of African Americans now say O.J. Simpson was guilty

Tuesday’s release of the CNN/ORC International survey comes just a few days before 20th anniversary of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson, the former football star and actor’s ex-wife, and of Ronald Goldman. The case against Simpson and the ensuing more than eight-month-long criminal trial, dubbed the “trial of the century,” engrossed the nation. Simpson was eventually acquitted.

According to CNN polling in 1994, a large majority of whites thought Simpson was guilty, but six in ten African-Americans believed that the charges against Simpson were not true, a belief that persisted throughout the murder trial and its aftermath.

Twenty years later, the new CNN/ORC poll indicates there has been a turnaround in attitudes towards the former football star, with a majority of blacks (53%) now saying that the murder charges against Simpson were true.